


Overflow

by tastewithouttalent



Category: Fifth Element (1997)
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, Inline with canon, Kissing, M/M, No Plot/Plotless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-09
Updated: 2019-10-09
Packaged: 2020-11-24 03:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20900639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tastewithouttalent/pseuds/tastewithouttalent
Summary: "With the light of salvation still spotting his vision with black and his heart pounding with the adrenaline of panic, Cornelius can’t figure out how to believe in the reality still here for him to inhabit." After saving the world, Cornelius finds a means of celebration waiting right next to him.





	Overflow

Cornelius is having some trouble wrapping his head around the fact of his own existence.

This isn’t typically a struggle for him. His life is a peaceful one, for the most part, absent the physical threat that would come with a more dangerous profession than a priest of a fading order tasked to retain information presumably vital to humanity’s existence. He’s spent years settling himself into the routine of his life, offering advice when asked for and sometimes when it’s not, and even as time slid past to bring himself and all of humanity towards the foretold moment of crisis he has found it easier than not to fall into a routine in the often-cluttered, always-cozy apartment he shares with the only person he has ever successfully converted to his cause.

Everything has gone to pieces in the last few days. Cornelius knew the threat was coming, has known it from the moment he became keeper of the knowledge which has formed the skeleton of his entire life’s work; but knowing it on paper and facing it in reality are two extremely different things. He has found untapped strength in himself, a motivation he didn’t know he still had to call upon rising to take him over in moments of pressure, and even if his plans have been less than successful in the execution the end result has proceeded with startling efficacy. He would attribute that to the Supreme Being guiding his path forward in her destiny to save the world and, conveniently, himself with it, except that he thinks by now he may have at least as much thanks to offer to the erstwhile cab driver who has been pulled into all of this by forces that Cornelius can only guess at. He hasn’t had much time to reflect on the subject, lately, and in the last hour that has seemed increasingly unimportant, as his own destruction along with that of the world and the entire universe seemed a growing certainty with every minute that passed.

He still can’t believe they succeeded. After all the setbacks: the destruction of the ship that carried their last hope, the reappearance of the Being who renewed it, stowing away and being captured, being held hostage and being summarily and terrifyingly freed, the painfully long journey through the vast emptiness of space to fling themselves into the waiting temple with mere minutes to spare; in all, Cornelius has spent the greater part of the last 24 hours entirely convinced that this will be his last day on Earth. He has been the carrier of good’s last hope, a bearer of the knowledge that is the only thing that can possibly stand between life and the ultimate, absolute destruction of all such; and now, with the light of salvation still spotting his vision with black and his heart pounding with the adrenaline of panic, he can’t figure out how to believe in the reality still here for him to inhabit.

Almost no one has moved. Leeloo and Korben are on the dais, clutching to each other like they are still bracing for the impact that some part of Cornelius is still waiting for with breathless anticipation. Ruby is standing over his shoulder -- or not, Cornelius finds, as he looks back to find the other storming away down the hallway with his lightstick clutched in his fist like he’s looking for someone to smack aside with it. The whole room is glowing with light, like it’s overflowing with the illumination that spilled to such blinding brilliance from Leeloo; and a hand is gripping at Cornelius’s robes, fingers are ruffling into his hair with anxious, uncontrollable affection.

“We did it.” The voice is familiar, even straining bright on disbelieving joy instead of the exhausted anxiety it has been cast into by the panic of recent events. “Father, it  _ worked_.” A breathless laugh. “We  _ won_.”

Cornelius blinks and turns his head. David is standing right next to him, where he has been since they drew together with the instinctive impulse towards the safety of a group after activating the stones. He’s not looking at Leeloo and Korben, not turning after Ruby’s precipitous retreat; he’s turned entirely in to beam at Cornelius, his dark eyes wide and bright and glowing with ecstatic relief. One hand is catching at the front of Cornelius’s robes, tugging at the fabric like he’s thinking about shaking the other back into the present but hasn’t quite decided on completing the action; the other is stroking through the soft of Cornelius’s thinning hair as if to smooth back the disarray his reckless touch has already caused. His smile is brilliant, soft and radiant and spilling over with joyous energy from the reprieve that has hit Cornelius with such ringing shock.

Cornelius stares at David for a long minute. Then he realizes this statement probably merits at least an attempt at a reply, and reaches to find words to give it. “We did?”

David ducks his head. His smile is bright and foolish; his fingers tighten on Cornelius’s robe to tug him into involuntary closeness. “We did,” he says, and laughs again, helpless and soft. “We’re  _ alive_!”

David is turned entirely in towards him, his shoulders curving forward to soften some of the lanky height he usually has on Cornelius’s own sturdier frame. His eyes are soft, his smile is brilliant; he still has a hand smoothing through Cornelius’s hair, his fingers sliding through it like he’s forgotten what he’s doing. Cornelius blinks, feels his heart beating in his chest, has a moment to take in the full force of the existence he still, somehow, miraculously has for himself; and then both his hands come up, he reaches to press David’s face between his palms, and as he pulls the other down he’s coming up onto his toes so he can press his mouth full against David’s own.

David leans forward immediately. His shoulders curve in, his head cants to the side to better fit their lips together. His hand is still against the back of Cornelius’s head, his palm bracing the other steady against the press of his lips, and Cornelius has both his hands fixing David in place so he can kiss all the disbelieving relief of survival against the other’s mouth. After a moment he loosens one hand enough to slide to a grip at the back of David’s neck; David makes a weak sound in the back of his throat that Cornelius can feel like elemental energy illuminating the whole of his body from the inside out. David takes a half-step forward, and Cornelius drops his other hand to catch his arm around David’s waist and pull him in closer.

David’s right. They’ve saved the world, have fulfilled the mission for which their entire order was established all those hundreds of years ago. Under the circumstances, Cornelius can think of no better celebration than an appreciation of the lives they will be allowed to continue living together.


End file.
